Take it Day-To-Day
by Super Ninja Cupcakes
Summary: After being sent back to the Human world, the herd has to go back home to north Dakota, and an old friend comes for a visit sequel to Ice Age School Days, bad summery, enjoy! PS: Please note that I RATED THIS 'T' FOR A REASON okay? It is rated 'T' FOR LANGUAGE, possible violence, and angst
1. Explanation

**Author's note: Hello readers, it's me, the author. I recently found my lost flashdrive that contained most of this story. i had to rewrite and upload it. after compairing the two i'd like to start over. yup. i'm just going to delete these first two chapters, edit over the first two of the origional, and upload them. disregard any of this you've already read for it is probably no true. thanks for yor patience ^^ i love you all! the chapters will be up soon :)**


	2. Chapter 1

**Author's note: Heyyy, what's going on guys? sorry about the whole start-over thing... yeah, i hope i didn't confuse you too badly ^^' nevertheless, everything is worked out now and i promise, no more unexpected re-uploads :)**

It was a warm day, sunny, and I wasn't expecting what was to come at all. Me and Aunt Joanie were by the pool, trying to get all tanned up before we went to a party at her friend's house. She said Sara's kids know Cara and Annie. Plus, it would be the first time I'd ever shown up at a party with a guy... let alone one like Buck. Shira was sooo happy that she was going to a party with her big softie- I was too. Shira and Diego were madly in love and needed to show it. Crash and Eddie were pissed that they weren't showing up with dates, and were fighting over who got to date my cousin... I ended it by saying none of them could date Cara, no exceptions. I mean, really, Cara was a year younger, _and_ they still had Helvetica and Julie back in North Dakota. Sid was obviously lonely, but was planning to talk to the birthday girl, or another one. Cara had told him all her friends would be there, including the ones older than her. Hey, Sid can't remain a bachelor _forever_, can he?

"Hey, isn't that the van that dropped off your friends?" Aunt Joanie asked.

I lifted my sunglasses so that they rested on top of my head, the sun stung my eyes, but the blackish-grayish van stood off the light well. It was Ray... fuck! He was going to be... holey crap! Omigod, he was with somebody. I couldn't see her, but I saw the outline of her head.

"Yeah, it is." I answered. "I gotta go talk to the boy _in_ the van."

"Why?" Aunt Joanie asked, "And who's that with him?"

"He's my boss, I need to talk business with him and whoever that is, okay?" I said. "Now I'm gonna go put some clothes on."

"Oh, just wear that Victoria's Secret robe I bought you, it ain't like he's gonna stare at nothin'." Aunt Joanie giggled just like Aunt Joanie does.

"Hey, Aunt Joanie, this is my _boss _we're talking about." I laughed, "I can't show up in a string bikini and a red, lacy, thin, wispy, Victoria's-secret-ass robe. It just seems so unprofessional!"

"Unprofessional? You're thirteen, just put on the damn robe." Aunt Joanie smiled and went back to her Cosmopolitan magazine.

"Okay, but don't blame me when you hear a guy in a wheelchair screaming in Spanish." I teased.

I ran indoors and threw on my wispy, thin, red, Victoria's-secret-ass robe; and decided whether or not to wear the pink heals Cara insisted on. I figured, what the hell? I'll wear what I want. And so I did, then walked out onto the porch to see what the hell Ray wanted.

"Hey, hey, Suzayyy." Ray said, "Listen before you get mad. It was beyond my control and since you won't listen to what I have to say, I brought you something... someone who you _will _listen to."

Ray opened the door of the van. Then I saw her. Sophie.


	3. Chapter 2

"Sophie!" I yelled, hot tears welling in my eyes. Sophie nearly tripped over herself getting out of the van. "Oh my god! Sophie!" I was crying tears of joy, sobbing in her arms, this would have to be my favorite day. The best day of my life. "Sophie! Oh, Sophie! I missed you so much!" I sobbed.

"Hey, hey, langirre." Sophie answered, looking at me, "I remember why I used to call you red! ...Dammit, girl, you went and cut your bangs again!"

"Oh my god! I thought you were dead." I stopped crying and looked at her. She was just as I had often thought she would, her emo hair, her sweet grin, her baby blue eyes. In terms of facial features, she resembled Alice from Twilight, only younger and definitely skinnier. She also had bigger eyes, and longer eyelashes.

"Didn't you read my letter?" Sophie smirked. "Jackal would've killed my ass had I stayed. Besides, at least I know about the humans... and how you and Buck are an item." she grinned slyly and winked at me.

I blushed, "Yeah, well... you know." I grinned back.

"Yeah, _I know._" Sophie winked again. "I heard you were almost preggers, like, twice!"

"Hell-to-da-yeah!" I said, "Buck and I tried to have kids, but then we died, and we became humans, and all that other bullshit." I smirked, "I know one thing, tonight we're going to a party."

"Oh yeah! That's my red! Getting' us into a party on my first day!" Sophie gave me a sisterly love fist-bump.

"Well, I see you have some catching up to do." Ray said, then began wheeling himself towards the back of the van.

"Wait," I pulled away from Sophie and went over to Ray, "thanks." I gave him a hug, a Sid style bear hug.

Ray turned very red and got one of those Goofy Goof grins; I wouldn't have been surprised if he went "Garsh, eyuck" ...if I spelled that wrong, sorry, just making it sound like the loony toons suggests. Anyways he wheeled himself towards the back once more and attempted to talk, but ended up just having the mind-reading chauffeur tell us to call him later.

Once they drove off, Sophie started giggling the words, "What was all that about?"

"I don't know, Bumble Bee, maybe it's 'cause he just got hugged by a Victoria's Secret angel." I laughed, "Or it might be that you're giggling like you're watching Comedy Central on a Jeff Dunham marathon."

Sophie laughed out loud, then gestured to Aunt Joanie, who we could clearly see from over the fence... She was dancing to Bad Romance by Lady Gaga. Have we discussed Aunt Joanie's dancing? No? Well she's good, but not very discreet about it. I laughed out loud with Sophie, until we were interrupted.

"Suzy cue, dearest heart? Whatever is the matter I heard you crying and-" I cut Buck off right there.

"Okay, first, before you say anything else..." I looked at the little foam wii remote baseball bat in his hand, "What were you gonna do with that? Wii remote 'm to smithereens?"

Buck blushed, "No, I just grabbed the first- OH MY GOD!" He noticed Sophie, "Sophie! We thought you were dead!" he paused, "Or, maybe you are dead and those berries I ate are turning on me." Buck looked pondering off into space. For a moment, I thought that might be it too.

"Yup, that's Buck all right." Sophie grinned slyly.

"Nope, I'm not seeing colors, so I do believe a hug is in order!" Buck went over and gave Sophie a huge bear hug, a Sid worthy bear hug. "God, you're in for a guild of crazy peeps in there." Buck pulled away and ushered us towards the door.

"Awww," Sophie whispered, "He studied your dialect!"

I mouthed, "I know right?!" and gave her a huge smile.


	4. Chapter 3

"Boys!" Buck called out the back door, "Front and center!"

"Sir," Crash said.

"Yes sir!" Eddie finished.

"Round up the others, we have a surprise for them." Buck answered, getting his army-style order-giving voice and face. "It's really quite amazing, so hurry." I can't imagine how the boys didn't see Sophie. Something in the back of my mind flickered back to the berries again.

The boys saluted Buck, then scurried off to get everybody to the porch. I was so happy to see my sister again, SO happy. I had a billion and six questions for her, I said so out loud and Buck told me, "Join the club, we got jackets."

I asked Sophie how long she'd been an agent.

"I wasn't really an agent, Red. I was hired after a murder threat by jackal, he said he'd kill me if I didn't..." She reddened and looked at Buck.

"Oh, sorry, girl talk I suppose... I'll go help the boys with the... thing, you know?" Buck stuttered and walked off the deck.

"As I was saying, he was crazy for young, pretty, weasel chicks like us. I didn't even get that, we were different species for god's sake." Sophie finished, but then started right back up again, "Hell, he probably would have gotten to me had it not been for Ray. He warned me, took me to the base to get a human body; and all around, saved my life." She took a long pause, looking off at the yard full of flowers and laughing children, "You know red, he really loves you."

My jaw dropped.

"What I mean is... look, I know you must hate him for what he did, but he was just trying to look out for you, he really wanted you to be happy in the long run. And besides, he took a ton of shit from the CEO. It almost got him fired, Suzan." She sighed, "Almost a hundred years in the business and he'd give it all up in a heartbeat for you, me, and all the others."

"Sophie, I... I just felt so helpless, I felt like everything was gone. I thought my sister was gone, and I couldn't see her ever again... And aside from me, Rose was devastated. Jared and Sean and Jimmy couldn't stand what they were seeing at that funeral." I almost started crying again, but Sophie smacked me. Hard enough to remind me that the fragile, skinny little Bumble Bee I knew was actually a hornet in disguise. "Thank you, Bumble Bee, I needed that more than you know." I wiped away a shameful little tear that had managed to fall, and sat up straight. "Aside from the heavy, did you..." I wanted to ask her if she ate now, if she only wrote that note in attempts to throw me, if she didn't have the problem anymore that I cursed and nearly died for all these years.

"Red, I swear I eat." Sophie answered, as if reading my mind. "I stopped with the damn negative body image thing before you had to kill Soto." She smiled, "You were always so tense, strict, eager to impress. But still, a big girly-girl. Heh, god I couldn't believe my eyes when you killed that big ugly saber."

"Well, call it protective." I smiled, "God, my stomach was killing me after I stabbed him." my eyelids fluttered, "It felt the same way when I kissed buck for the first time." My smile grew wider, like those soft memories were pulling at the edges of my mouth.

"Ray let me watch." She said softly, "You broke my damn heart when you were crying your eyes out like that." Sophie smiled wide, "But I guess that was the last and final move by the love doctor."

I smiled wider, "Thanks, Soph, if it weren't for you, I would've remained a puss and never told him how I felt." I closed my eyes and opened them again, just to make sure she was real, "So how are you feeling?"

"I'm alright, feeling better about my infernal attempts to make my sister think I starved to death." her smile faded a little, "I really am better now. I eat three meals a day and a dessert. And I feel good." her face brightened again. "Now tell me something about your marriage."

I nodded for her question.

"Was the honeymoon as sweet as you fantasized it would be?" She grinned dirtily.

"Sophie!" my face turned eleven shades of red and, against all of my mature tendencies, giggled like a school girl. "Yes, it was." I rolled my eyes.

"What is it Suzanne?" Shira was the first to come up on the porch, followed by the rest of them. "It time to get ready for that Par-tay already?"

"No, it's just that we have somebody for you and Louie to meet, and for the rest to see again. Ladies and gentle-mammals, I give you... Sophia!" oh, that did it. Everybody was trying to hug her at once, trying to get to her and see that she was really there. She had a million people around her. I swear to god I saw Sid kiss her. It was at that point I explained where Sophie had been all this time.

"And that's basically it." I said, fiddling with the arm of the chair. No one asked me any questions accept Louis, who wanted to know where her human body came from. I made a mental note to ask Ray that later...

We had made our way into the house, all of us very uncomfortable in the heat.

"Hey, what's goin' on? I saw tears and hugs and a bunch of people swarming a lil' girl... what was all that?" Aunt Joanie appeared in the doorway connecting the living room and the kitchen. She was still wearing her swimsuit and looked slightly sunburned.

"Aunt Joanie, this is Sophie. She's an orphan Manfred and Ellen adopted. We've known each other a while." I explained, I sounded rather believable.

"Well, I hope she brought something '80s style, 'cause this party's theme is history! Literally, everybody dresses from different times." Aunt Joanie answered, "Emily and Annie are dressing up in '50s poodle skirts!" she squealed.

"Cool!" Sid exclaimed, "I'm going as Elvis!"

We all stared at him, jaws hanging,

"What? All I gotta do is wear leather and slick my hair back." Sid shrugged it off.

"Lads, we should go as the Beatles!" Buck suggested.

"I'm going cave girl!" Cara said, appearing from the end of the hallway. "I got the animal print dress and everything!"

"I'm going as a futuristic sci-fi chick!" Shira threw in.

Sophie and I looked at each other, and pleased grins crept upon our faces, "We'll go as the Beatles' groupies!" We said at the same time, "Jinx!" we slapped each others' knees and exclaimed in pain, "Ooouch!"

Everybody laughed, and Aunt Joanie glanced at the clock. "Oh, shit, we'll be late! Kids, start gettin' ready!"

After about an hour, the boys decided they weren't going to go through with the whole "Beatles" thing. Yeah, apparently they got into a big argument over who got to be John, and who had to be Ringo... Anyways long story short, Sophie, Buck and I decided to go as people from the '80s. Crash and Eddie decided to go as the wright bros, Louis was I pirate... the irony. Diego decided to go as a futuristic sci-fi dude with Shira. I wish I had a picture of Sophie's and my hair that day, it was so funny. Sophie's bangs just weren't having it, they would not poof up right, so we had to curl it, then brush it, then curl it, then brush it, then crimp it... yeah, it wasn't easy.

Anyway, later Ray showed up with some huge problems. He showed up in the steak-out van, eyes stained with tears, jaw set in anger, and vanes bulging from his fists that were gripping the wheels of his chair.

"Ray! Hi!" I said nicely, greeting him at the door. "What's up?"

"Gaylord pissed me off." He answered coldly.

"I see." I said with a grimace. "How, _exactly_ did he piss you off?"

Ray looked at me, looked at me the way nobody had ever looked at me before. His eyes showed fear, his expression showed anger, and the way his jaw was set told me he had had such a terrible day. "He told me my father was alive."

"Oh," My eyes lit up, "Well that's amazing, where is he?" I smiled.

"No, no, no. You misunderstood. Remember how I said my family died in a car accident because of a DUI?" I nodded, "Well I bet you assumed it was the driver of the other vehicle who was drunk?"

Then it hit me, "Oh my god." I said quietly, "He...?"

"Yeah." Ray said; gripping, once again, the wheels of his chair. "Anyway, the C.E.O. Has to talk to you and me, right now."

"I can't show up to my twelve-year-old, army addicted commanding officer while I'm dressed like Madonna in the "Like a Virgin" Video!" I said, gesturing to myself.

"I." Ray said.

"I?" I repeated.

"I don't care." Ray answered. "We need to go now, and don't argue that you have no time, I'll freeze it."

"Oh, fine." I said, coming down the porch steps. "Cholo." I muttered under my breath.

"I am one fourth Spaniard and my mother made me learn how to speak Spanish. Use German swears if you're going to insult me." Ray said, fiddling with his PDA. "Just so you know; this is how _I _freeze time, this makes it so I don't have to keep freezing it over and over and over again. Time thaws, just like ice."

"So, time's frozen right now?" I asked, letting a devilish smile creep across my face.

"Why?" Ray obviously didn't like my smile, and what it meant.

"Hold on a minute." I ran inside and saw all my friends and family at weird times, like when the camera goes off too early and it's a funny face picture taped to the side of your mirror for the next ten years. Funny. As. Hell. I walked back outside and looked awful pleased with myself, "Okay, we're good." I said.

Ray transported us, and it took slightly longer than usual to get to the base. The base we got to was larger, and seemed more like an office building, one that had a whole lot of windows, and couches; and people laughing and drinking coffee. Also; there were trees, and sunshine, and people playing Frisbee outside the windows. All of it seemed odd to me. I mean, unless we were in the middle of nowhere, we would be questioned as to why there were no adults here, and why we were all working on magic and shit.

"Suze, welcome to HQ, planet G." So that was it. We were on a fictional, distant planet that nobody could access.

"Oh. My. God. You mean planet G? Like on _Battle Ship_?" I asked.

"Yes, ma'am. We killed all the aliens with extreme predigest and stole all their coffee." Ray laughed, "Most of us just drink coco anyway, though."

"God, everybody's dressed like hippies. I guess technically speaking I'm ten or twenty years ahead of everyone here, then." I smiled.

"Yeah," Ray answered, leading me to a door. It didn't look at all that important, just a regular door. Except of course for the bold printed letters spelling out, "Eliza Berkowitz".

"Is she the C.E.O?" I asked, not taking my eyes off the door for a second.

"Yes, and you'll get on her good side by saluting her right off the bat." Ray warned, opening the door. It seemed this wasn't any ordinary office; she had a secretary, a bunch of framed awards on the walls. Everything from a sixth grade integrity award, to a macaroni landscape picture from kindergarten. "Good evening, Lucile." Ray tipped his baseball cap to the secretary girl, who blushed and waved.

As we made our way to commanding officer Ericson's main office, I leaned in close to Ray and whispered, "Ooo, Ray's got the hots for Lucile!"

"Shut up." Ray mumbled, not hiding his smile from me. He knocked on the door at the end of the small hallway, which had a weird circle on it. I had no idea what-

"Password!" the circle shot open; exposing a set of bark brown eyes, a camo bandanna, and dreads. Dreads, of all things... so cool.

"Apocalypse now." Ray said all calm-like.

The eyes darted to me, "Who's the cage dancer?"

"She usually isn't dressed, as Gaylord would word it "Like a Virgin", Eliza. She got here on short notice. This is Asia Lamb, AKA, Suzan." Ray answered.

The circle shot closed just as fast as it had opened, then we heard a whole bunch of locks unlocking, then the door opened. The C.E.O. I pictured her a young Sarah Palin in a tasteful pantsuit... nah, nah nah nah. This girl was so much cooler. So much cooler. She had the camo bandanna, the dreads, the cargo pants, the awesome ass halter top and chains. God, I wouldn't be surprised if she were to pull out a machine gun and and say, "Let's drop some led on these SOB's!"

"Hey Ray, ya crazy Jew! How's my favorite agent!" Eliza stooped down and hugged the ever loving hell out of Ray. "Hey, you must be the crazy weasel chick?" Eliza shook my hand and saluted me. I returned the gesture and apologized for my appearance.

"Oh, come on kid, you think _I _dress normal? Come in, come, come. I'll get the sodas. You a grape kinda girl or an orange kinda girl?" Eliza asked.

"Orange." I said, "Hey Ray, I didn't know you were Jewish."

"I'm sort of multi-faith. I believe with everybody." Ray answered.

"You still like Grape, right Ray?" Eliza asked. I looked around her office, it was a nice one. There were pictures of her with other kids, some of them Black and White, some in color; others tinted in certain colors, like yellow or green. There was a huge Hawaiian flag behind her cherry wood desk, an original, too. Like before the USA took over the whole shootin' match. Eliza did look pretty Hawaiian to me. I am not a racist, she's just really tan.

"Yes ma'am, I love grape." Ray answered.

"Are these all you?" I asked, lightly touching the one with her next to a red-headed female pilot.

"Indeed, that one's of me and Amelia. That was back when I first founded this agency. Yeah it started out as a rag-tag team of brave kids in a tree house." Eliza got a dreamy look in her eyes.

"Amelia?" I asked.

"Amelia Airheart. She was a good cadet, that one was taken the day before she died." Eliza said quietly, "Never found, in all these years. Yup, me and her, we were great friends."

"How old are you?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"That's for me to know; and you to go digging through files, only to find I burned the date off my birth certificate." she smiled, "But as far as everybody else knows, I'm thirteen and three quarters. Anyways all formality aside, we have a big problem, and I'm gonna be blunt. There's a rip in the fabric of time and space, and only the things agents like you and Ray do can keep it from getting any bigger, and may even be able to fully repair it." Eliza handed me a soda.

"But, what's so special about us?" I asked, cracking open my soda.

Ray laughed, "Ah, Suzan." he took the grape Soda from Eliza.

"What?" I asked, taking a sip.

"You two are some of the only agents who get power crystals; now everything is automatic, built-in. Not every agent gets one, you two are special. As were Cassandra and Lenny, but they went bad. There's no end in sight for you two." Eliza explained, sitting down in the purple bean-bag.

"Ray! You told me every agent was assigned one." I said to Ray, giving him a mean look. "I didn't realize it was a special thing." I touched my necklace lightly, feeling the heat in the crystal.

"Well it is, there are only so many that can be given. When I found the first one, it was in a bottle on the beach in Hawaii. I thought it was just a regular crystal necklace, it was shaped like a dolphin, and ocean blue. I looked at it and said, "wow, I wish I had another one for Eric." and there it was, another one in my other hand, this one was a star. I made more for my friends, somehow it knew which charms to give, and so came the little club that would one day become this organization." Eliza answered, I was fascinated with all these stories. "Point being, when I made yours, it turned out a heart. Now, I didn't know what that meant until recently. Ray told me how you had come to love your ice age friends, one in particular you have a very intimate relationship with. That's when it came to me, your charm is love because you truly do love these characters." Eliza sipped her pop thoughtfully, "Tell me, Suzan, are you an orphan?"

"No, ma'am." I said, stunned by all this.

"Well then, that is extraordinary." Eliza motioned for me to sit. I sat down in a green moon chair right next to her. "So far, mainly orphan agents have established real relationships with the characters; but you really love them, and you have a family that you loved to begin with. Outstanding. That's why your charm is love, you can love a million families and always have room in your heart for more."

"I never thought of it like that before." I said, looking at my charm.

"Well, you just keep doing what you're doing, and soon the rip will heal. The dead, the ones that really died, will stay dead; and they will never make another movie like _Contaigen._"

"I hear that, high five!" I said.

"Alright cadets, dismissed." Eliza saluted us.

"Wait, wait, wait." Ray interrupted, "Are you saying my bastard of a dad isn't really still alive?"

"Yes'ir he surly is not." Eliza answered.

"Oh, thank god." Ray answered, "Oh, I'm gonna have to apologize to Gaylord for punching him in the face, aren't I?"

"Yes'ir, you surly do." Eliza smiled and saluted us again.

I returned her kind gesture and walked out the door behind Ray, assured that it would be okay.


End file.
